Trayvon Martin: 'Shoot first' law under scrutiny

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His father could go them one better and release the medical report from the following day: such injuries are generally described in detail. That might also help explain whether or not, after all that head banging on concrete, first responders advised a CT.

Of course the police should have close-ups, but we know how much help they’ve already been.
Uncharitable characterization. Did you read the recent report that they requested an arrest warrant for Zimmerman?

But hey, EVERYBODY is racist!
 
Here’s likely how this went down which makes sense.

"A Sanford police officer who responded to the incident, Timothy Smith, noted in his police report that when he arrived on the scene, Zimmerman had a bloody nose and blood on the back of his head. His back was wet and covered in grass, “as if he had been laying on his back on the ground,” Smith wrote.

Smith said Zimmerman was placed in the back of the squad car, where he was given medical attention by the Fire Department."

Now if you watch the different videos ABC is the only video where it actually shows the Officer viewing the injury to back of Mr Zimmermans head. The other video cut that section out and fast fowards ahead. Interesting.
 
Uncharitable characterization. Did you read the recent report that they requested an arrest warrant for Zimmerman?

But hey, EVERYBODY is racist!
Sensitive much?

Criticizing the documented police missteps and inaction, is not the same as calling them racist.

Like I said, a child is dead…
 
His father could go them one better and release the medical report from the following day: such injuries are generally described in detail. That might also help explain whether or not, after all that head banging on concrete, first responders advised a CT.

Of course the police should have close-ups, but we know how much help they’ve already been.
Medical records are private. The father of a grown man does not have access to his son’s medical records. He can talk about what he saw, but he has no authority to demand hospital records and if he had copies and releases them without his son’s permission, he could end up in hot water.
 
Profiling is as profiling does. Both neighbors and the ‘gut’ friend who defended him, have indicated previous robberies by black guys as justification for his concerns. Did he fit any specific description? The answer is no. What else is missing to make it racial profiling? A trail of breadcrumbs?

In case you missed it, I will assert again: you don’t have to hate to be racist, you don’t have to be racist to racially profile someone, and you can be/do both of those things even if you ‘deliver your body to be burned’ on behalf of needy black people.

The criteria for being racist/racially prejudiced, is to value people differently or treat them differently, based on race. Racial profiling means to have negative expectations (in a criminal sense) based on the race of a person.
And your able to prove that Zimmerman valued Martin differently how? I don’t know if you’ve ever worked in security or as a cop. The job is to observe. I’ve had people say to me in my career, “what are you looking at” while I was in uniform. My answer, “It’s my job to look at you”. That was Zimmermans job although he exceeded some boundries by following. To what extent he followed is not fully known. Put race aside. What is the concrete evidence that Martin was profiled?

When you act suspicious you bring attention to yourself. It was GZ’s job to pay attention to behavior of that nature. Hey, Zimmerman may be guilty of just walking up to TM and shooting him for no reason, I don’t know yet.
 
Medical records are private. The father of a grown man does not have access to his son’s medical records. He can talk about what he saw, but he has no authority to demand hospital records and if he had copies and releases them without his son’s permission, he could end up in hot water.
The obvious implication (well, I guess, not so obvious) is that Zimmerman could help himself by authorizing his Dad to release those records. It’s a single sheet of paper called an Authorization For Release of Medical Records…
 
Profiling is as profiling does. Both neighbors and the ‘gut’ friend who defended him, have indicated previous robberies by black guys as justification for his concerns. Did Trayvon fit any specific description? The answer is no. What else is missing to make it racial profiling? A trail of breadcrumbs?

In case you missed it, I will assert again: you don’t have to hate to be racist, you don’t have to be racist to racially profile someone, and you can be/do both of those things even if you ‘deliver your body to be burned’ on behalf of needy black people.

The criteria for being racist/racially prejudiced, is to value people differently or treat them differently, based on race. Racial profiling means to have negative expectations (in a criminal sense) based on the race of a person.
Can I just ask, what does this have to do with anything? (Not directed at you specifically, because you’re not the first one to have brought it up).

It is not illegal for private citizens to pattern their interactions with other people on the basis of conditioned expectations. When those conditioned expectations correspond to objective reality (i.e., blacks are several times more likely than whites to commit property crimes; I have heard six times as likely but cannot verify that readily), it’s not even irrational for them to do so.

Even if we assume the worst about Zimmerman, that he is in fact a vile hate-filled white racist (though media reports consistently misrepresent him as a “white Hispanic” when he is only half the former and apparently none of the latter), that doesn’t change anything, except that it might suggest the possibility that Zimmerman provoked Martin in some manner above and beyond simply following him and then disengaging from him. But given the evidence presently available to us, it doesn’t appear this happened anyway – again, Zimmerman was injured but Martin, aside from the gunshot wound, was not. We do, on the other hand, have plenty of evidence that Martin was involved in lots of petty crimes and at least anecdotal evidence that he was involved in some violence. So even if the absolute worst of what is being said about Zimmerman is true (and there is very limited evidence to believe that), at best it would mean we have absolutely no method for deciding between whether Martin or Zimmerman provoked the fight that led to Martin’s being shot.
 
They wouldn’t have to, if we had access to the medical and autopsy reports. The media will talk as long as their is no evidence released. Arguably, that is their job. If it were my child, I would be talking 24/7 anywhere that would have me.
I used to work in a hospital - not only are the paramedics prohibited from releasing medical information, they can’t even talk specific medical cases in an elevator or hallway where they could be overheard.

I think police just released that video to prove they did take GZ into custody and questioned him, but voila, a bunch of medically untrained amateurs thought GZ would look like a stabbed pig, spurting blood like in those horror movies where they splash tomato juice all over the scene to make it look gory. :rolleyes:

Oh people are disappointed, not enough blood, not enough gore! 🤷 😃

Edit: I guess if they are disappointed, they should go watch more horror movies to satisfy their hunger for gory scenes! 🤷
 
The more I read about Zimmerman, the more I get the impression that he was just paranoid, period.

I mean, I definitely think he was profiling, but not necessarily racial-profiling. I think he was just looking for trouble in whatever he saw. Consider his comments:

“This guy looks like he’s up to no good or he’s on drugs or something. It’s raining and he’s just walking around looking about.”

and

“Something’s wrong with him. Yep, he’s coming to check me out. He’s got something in his hands. I don’t know what his deal is.”

According to one of his black neighbors: "He (Zimmerman) came by here and talked about carrying guns and getting my wife more involved with guns. He said I should have a weapon and that his wife took classes to learn how to use one. I do have a weapon, but I don’t walk around the neighborhood with mine!”

This falls in line with the 46 calls to the police that month. He just sounds paranoid.
 
I believe with all the cases of the white and black college students murdered, justice wasn’t found. The murderers were never found, which is sometimes sadly the case in areas where those murders occur. Whether or not the cases were conducted reasonably is another story. I do not know, although, I remember that the city had a huge scandal around that time where they weren’t really reporting the murder/criminal cases in order to make the city look less crime-ridden. At the time, my roommate’s boyfriend worked for the police department on campus and told us that so many of those crimes don’t really get solved or handled so well because it is just a sad part of life in that area. They were too inundated… almost like they were lost causes.
The primary outrage in this case is over problems with the police investigation; my question is why then, should there be the same outrage in cases where perhaps the police pursued investigations to the best of their limited capacity?
 
Sensitive much?

Criticizing the documented police missteps and inaction, is not the same as calling them racist.

Like I said, a child is dead…
Yes, I certainly understand person is dead, but that’s been the general charge, and the reason for the action, isn’t it?

That there has been missteps and inaction by the Sanford PD because…?

Most of the police depts “documented missteps and inaction” have been based on false notions. First it was that Zimmerman wasn’t taken into custody for an interview (he was).

Then there was inaction that Zimmerman wasn’t arrested. Oh wait, an arrest warrant was requested, but withheld without having more information…
 
Can I just ask, what does this have to do with anything? (Not directed at you specifically, because you’re not the first one to have brought it up).

It is not illegal for private citizens to pattern their interactions with other people on the basis of conditioned expectations. When those conditioned expectations correspond to objective reality (i.e., blacks are several times more likely than whites to commit property crimes; I have heard six times as likely but cannot verify that readily), it’s not even irrational for them to do so.

Even if we assume the worst about Zimmerman, that he is in fact a vile hate-filled white racist (though media reports consistently misrepresent him as a “white Hispanic” when he is only half the former and apparently none of the latter), that doesn’t change anything, except that it might suggest the possibility that Zimmerman provoked Martin in some manner above and beyond simply following him and then disengaging from him. But given the evidence presently available to us, it doesn’t appear this happened anyway – again, Zimmerman was injured but Martin, aside from the gunshot wound, was not. We do, on the other hand, have plenty of evidence that Martin was involved in lots of petty crimes and at least anecdotal evidence that he was involved in some violence. So even if the absolute worst of what is being said about Zimmerman is true (and there is very limited evidence to believe that), at best it would mean we have absolutely no method for deciding between whether Martin or Zimmerman provoked the fight that led to Martin’s being shot.
I have no idea whether Zimmerman is racist or not but I am convinced he engaged in racial profiling. Unless I’m a fool for not reacting negatively to every stockbroker I meet who is the same race as most of those in prison for Ponzi schemes…
 
I have no idea whether Zimmerman is racist or not but I am convinced he engaged in racial profiling. Unless I’m a fool for not reacting negatively to every stockbroker I meet who is the same race as most of those in prison for Ponzi schemes…
There is evidence that he profiled Trayvon as being up to no good, but what is the evidence that he racially profiled Trayvon?
 
The more I read about Zimmerman, the more I get the impression that he was just paranoid, period.

I mean, I definitely think he was profiling, but not necessarily racial-profiling. I think he was just looking for trouble in whatever he saw. Consider his comments:

“This guy looks like he’s up to no good or he’s on drugs or something. It’s raining and he’s just walking around looking about.”…
Not to mention, he was “suspicious” of someone “just walking around”…AT 7PM.

You might be a little more suspicious of seeing someone at, say, 2 am, but 7 PM??
 
Yes, I certainly understand person is dead, but that’s been the general charge, and the reason for the action, isn’t it?

That there has been missteps and inaction by the Sanford PD because…?

Most of the police depts “documented missteps and inaction” have been based on false notions. First it was that Zimmerman wasn’t taken into custody for an interview (he was).

Then there was inaction that Zimmerman wasn’t arrested. Oh wait, an arrest warrant was requested, but withheld without having more information…
I seem to have had more official information about Casey Anthony’s case in the first hour Nancy Grace dealt with it than I had access to three weeks after Trayvon died. How’s that for police inaction? And BTW, in that case, there is absolutely no evidence it was not simply the botched cover-up of an accidental drowning by people pathologically dissociated from the truth.
 
Zimmerman could authorize them released if he so chose.
And why, because seekerz wants to see the records? I’m sure he will release the records to the officials investigating the incident.
 
But given the evidence presently available to us, it doesn’t appear this happened anyway – again, Zimmerman was injured but Martin, aside from the gunshot wound, was not. We do, on the other hand, have plenty of evidence that Martin was involved in lots of petty crimes and at least anecdotal evidence that he was involved in some violence.
Where have you heard that Martin was involved in petty crimes or violence?
 
The more I read about Zimmerman, the more I get the impression that he was just paranoid, period.

I mean, I definitely think he was profiling, but not necessarily racial-profiling. I think he was just looking for trouble in whatever he saw. Consider his comments:

“This guy looks like he’s up to no good or he’s on drugs or something. It’s raining and he’s just walking around looking about.”

and

“Something’s wrong with him. Yep, he’s coming to check me out. He’s got something in his hands. I don’t know what his deal is.”

According to one of his black neighbors: "He (Zimmerman) came by here and talked about carrying guns and getting my wife more involved with guns. He said I should have a weapon and that his wife took classes to learn how to use one. I do have a weapon, but I don’t walk around the neighborhood with mine!”

This falls in line with the 46 calls to the police that month. He just sounds paranoid.
None of that screams paranoid to me, for several reasons:

(1) The numerous calls to police can be explained by his being a neighborhood watchman. Calling police is generally what neighborhood watchmen are supposed to do.

(2) It’s very wise for women to carry guns where the law permits it, especially in bad areas, so I don’t see how advising a neighbor to look into that possibility is bad. My female coworker and I talk about it sometimes (I got my CCW license, she is still considering it; we both live and work in a not-very-great part of Texas).

(3) My understanding is that Martin was seen walking around the backs of houses and looking around. Given the rash of break-ins supposedly in that area, it’s reasonable to suspect he was casing houses. Granted, it’s also reasonable to suspect he was just a kid in an unfamiliar development.

(4) We know now that Martin did in fact have something, but it wasn’t a weapon (it was skittles and tea). “I don’t know what his deal is” is a perfect statement of his situation: this was an unfamiliar person acting strangely, and he had no idea what the kid’s intentions were. Hence why he followed him and called the police.
 
And why, because seekerz wants to see the records? I’m sure he will release the records to the officials investigating the incident.
Seekerz would rather see the records than the innards of his soundly discredited (on the Last Word) “I trust my gut” friend…that’s for sure.
 
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